Majority of Rochester students vote for later start time

Saturday

Jan 12, 2013 at 3:15 AM

By Samantha Allensallen@fosters.com

ROCHESTER — The Rochester School Board’s ad hoc committee devoted to determining whether students should start school at a later time in the day report 60 percent of surveyed students prefer that option.

Board member Dan Harkinson, and chairman of the ad hoc committee, told the full school board Thursday night if the group goes forward with a recommendation to start school later, the schedule for students in grades 6 through 12 will be moved from 7:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. for starting classes while elementary school students will have to start at 9 a.m., to allow for the shift in bus scheduling. Harkinson said approximately one-third of surveyed students said they wished to start school at the 8 a.m. mark, while 40 percent of students noted they were comfortable keeping the start times as they currently are.

The ad hoc committee was formed last September to review the possibility of starting school later at the request of Harkinson, who set a March 1 deadline for the committee to provide a final recommendation on the subject to the school board. He cited current research which shows students do better academically when they have more sleep, they are biologically designed to go to bed later, and some students attending the secondary schools from Wakefield have pointed out they have to get up around 4 a.m. to catch the bus to Rochester.

If a later start times were approved, they would most likely go into effect at the start of the 2014 school year.

On Tuesday, the committee reviewed a survey taken by hundreds of students from Rochester Middle School and Spaulding High School. According to the results, a majority of students said they go to bed between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., wake up between 5:30 a.m. and 6 a.m. and do not believe the amount of sleep they get every night “negatively impacts” their grades. Harkinson noted the middle school participation in the survey was close to 100 percent and the high school participation was “well above” 50 percent.

Harkinson said the next step in the committee process will involve issuing a survey to parents of students at all grade levels in the district so they have ample opportunity to provide their thoughts on the issue. He noted in the coming weeks, elementary school students will be surveyed as well.

As for hitting the March 1 deadline, Harkinson says he is planning to request an extension, to allow the committee time to process incoming data from future surveys.

He noted he has been pleased with the group’s progress so far.

“We had a really good exchange (Tuesday night) …,” Harkinson said. “The members of the committee, our student members, administrative members at various levels and Wakefield all weighed in and there wasn’t unanimity but it was an exchange of ideas. There was an ultimate consensus we need to survey parents, and in that respect, I’m very pleased at the way it has gone.”

The committee will next meet on Tuesday, Jan. 29 at 5 p.m. in the Rochester School Board meeting room in the Community Center, to finalize a draft of a survey for parents.

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